And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema . Dean Roberts

A re-release of the long deleted Ritornell cd from 2000, many fans and critics regard New Zealander Dean Roberts' second solo album "And the black moths play the grand cinema" as his best so far. This re-issue comes with complete new artwork and is available on vinyl for the first time. Guest musicians include Tim Barnes, Charles Curtis and Matt Valentine.

" 'And the black moths play the grand cinema' is a tremendous achievement. Everything fits. It’s less of an attempt to blend genres - post-rock, prepared-guitar improv, glitchadelica — than a demonstration of how; for the truly imaginative, genres remain utterly meaningless. Roberts has always had a fine ear for sonic exploration, but 'Moths' sees him on peak form. Even when he leaves the instruments to drone, their individual character and juxtaposition as interesting as the appealing density of their combined harmonics. On this album, the overall essence is truly far more than the sum of its parts." (Brian Duguid, The Wire)

Dean Roberts

Beginning with the post punk rock trio Thela and moving through White Winged Moth and into his solo recordings, Dean Roberts has marked himself as a guitarist of unique talents. New Zealander (now based in Vienna) Roberts has played a variety of solo gigs and played with some of the heavyweights of electrical/acoustic improvisation.

Dean Roberts played guitar in Thela, an avantgarde trio (also featuring Rosy Parlane) that released two albums, Thela (Ecstatic Peace, 1995) and Argentina (Ecstatic Peace, 1996), each one containing lengthy artsy/noisy jams, halfway between Dead C and Massaker. After the band broke up, Roberts started a solo project named White Winged Moth with I Can See Inside Your House (Poon Village, 1996), a collection of eight instrumental vignettes situated halfway between John Fahey and Derek Bailey.

It was followed by Silo Blanket (Formacentric, 1997) and Ribbon Arcade (Formacentric, 1998), that Roberts used as test beds for his experiments of digital sound manipulation. His first solo album, Moth Park (Formacentric, 1998), presented a different artist. The music is spiritual and ambient, psychedelic and ethnic.

One of his masterpieces is the sprawling suite Kompakt Arcade on All Cracked Medias (Mille Plateaux, 1999). There are traces of Brian Eno and Robert Wyatt in his painstaking work on building sound for the sake of sound. Aluminum (Erstwhile, 2001) is a collaboration with Austrian improvisor Werner Dafeldecker.

And The Black Moths Play The Grand Cinema (Mille Plateaux, 2000 - Staubgold, 2004) adds a three-unit combo and numerous instruments that help to release some of the claustrophobic tension of the previous masterpiece. The fusion of glitch pop, live instruments and droning minimalism is one of his peaks.

He also works with Werner Dafeldecker (Polwechsel) and Martin Brandlmayr (Radian, Trapist) as Autistic Daughters.